As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to these users is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may vary with respect to the type of information handled; the methods for handling the information; the methods for processing, storing or communicating the information; the amount of information processed, stored, or communicated; and the speed and efficiency with which the information is processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include or comprise a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
An information handling system may include many different devices and components. Each of the devices and components require power to operate, and the information handling system may include pre-defined power states in which the information handling system may operate. The pre-defined power states may be, for example, the power states defined by the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Specification (ACPI). The ACPI includes various sleep states in which segments of the information handling system are powered down at the expense of wake latency and system context. One example state, S3, is a low wake latency sleeping state where all system context is lost, except for volatile system memory, e.g. RAM, which remains powered. One problem with S3 is that, in large memory systems, the S3 state still requires significant power consumption. Moreover, transferring to a lower power state, such as S4, where all devices are powered off, significantly increases the wake latency of the computer system.